Back in early 2024, Daniel Goldhaber’s “Faces of Death” remake was given a hard R rating by the MPA for “strong bloody violence, gore, sexual content, nudity, language, and drug use.” That rating announcement meant that Goldhaber’s film, shot in April 2023, was officially done post-production.
The remake, spearheaded by Legendary Entertainment, is said to be a modern take on the premise of the 1978 cult classic. Much like Goldhaber’s last few films, “Faces of Death” is said to have a very small budget as it was only made for $7M.
Ten months later, the film still has no U.S. distribution. Based on what I’m now hearing, backed by two sources, Legendary is not happy with how ‘Faces’ turned out, and that’s despite paying for reshoots, and the film testing very well.
The film is now in limbo. It’s too “experimental,” one person tells me, and not the film Legendary expected Goldhaber to deliver. Legendary is now unwilling to put any more money into it, and have so far held back on passing it to buyers, without any explanation.
What’s even more curious is that “Faces of Death” was actually supposed to premiere at at the SXSW Film Festival, but legendary pulled it, without explanation. This, I’m told, has led to a communication breakdown between Goldhaber and Legendary.
It’s come to the point now where Goldhaber has set ‘Faces’ aside and started work on his next film, which will be set inside the German rave scene and star ‘Faces’ actress Charli XCX.
“Faces of Death” stars Dacre Montgomery, Barbie Ferreira, Josie Totah and Charli XCX. It follows a female moderator of a YouTube-like site as she sorts through content unfit for the platform. She comes across a group on the website that appears to be re-enacting the murders from the original film. However, given the digital age of widespread misinformation online, are these murders real or deepfakes?
Goldhaber turned a lot of heads with 2022’s taut, tense and terrific “How to Blow Up A Pipeline.” I was also a big fan of his 2018 breakout, “Cam” — if you haven’t seen that surreal, almost nightmare-like film, I highly recommend you stream it on Netflix.
The ‘Smile’ franchise has a new director. David Bruckner, who made “The Night House” and the 2022 “Hellraiser” reboot, has been hired to direct “Smile 3” for Paramount.